Broken sewer line could cost you thousands

Eric Smith stands over a sinkhole by his home on Jefferson Avenue in Covington that occurred when a 70- to 80-year-old sewer lateral from his house to the sewer main broke. He’s financially responsible for fixing it.(Photo: The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy)Buy Photo

COVINGTON Eric Smith saw a hole in the street in front of his house and figured he'd spotted a problem the city would have to fix.

He was stunned when he, like dozens of others in the last year, found out the problem could cost him thousands of dollars because Sanitation District 1 quit making lateral repairs in June 2013 .

The sinkhole occurred when a 70- to 80-year-old sewer lateral from Smith's house to the sewer main broke. The city and SD1 say the lateral is his property, and his cost.

The laterals were always considered to be owned by property owners. SD1 ended its program because it could no longer afford to offer the service after budget cuts last year, said Jamie Holtzapfel, spokesman for SD1.

Smith said he never fathomed that the hole in the pavement on his street in the 1700 block of Jefferson Avenue would be his financial problem.

On Monday, after digesting the fact that the Covington Code violation he had received was, indeed, his to manage, Smith had Jolly Plumbing check out the situation. He said the company confirmed that the lateral was broken underground in the street. He's waiting for an estimate of repair cost.

Sanitation District 1 officials said private sewer laterals are owned by the homeowner from their house to the sewer mainline, and Covington City Engineer Mike Yeager said he believes it's always been that way.

Yeager said the city has notified 38 residents about broken sewer laterals in the past year.

Generally, Yeager said, property owners are having to pay $2,000 to $13,000 for the fixes, but Smith has heard the cost could be much higher.

"I think the city has failed," Smith said, noting that there are other cities that pay some of the cost of such repairs. In Covington, he said, "they just abandoned the taxpayers" by not offering help.

Covington offers home repair assistance for people who cannot afford the costs. But the grants are for people with low incomes, and Smith said he does not qualify.

"The property owner is responsible for having the street excavated and the pipe fixed," Yeager said. However, he said, the city has agreed to back fill the area that's damaged and restore the street once the lateral has been fixed or replaced.

"This saves the owner a good amount of money and also ensures the roadway is restored properly," Yeager said.

People usually don't notice any problem within their home or on their property until a sinkhole appears in the street. That was the case with Smith, who said he saw the hole in the street when he returned home one evening from work and grocery shopping.

Sinkholes happen when a pipe breaks or crumbles, letting road gravel and other material into the pipe. "The pavement gets sucked down into it," Yeager said.

Eventually, the problem can cause sewage to back up into a house, Yeager said.

Yeager said that in the last year, homeowners with the broken laterals have seemed to be stunned that they are responsible for the costs of repairs, and he suspects that's because SD1's program used to cover it, and property owners didn't have to pay.

Temporarily, the city has placed a traffic cone over the relatively small hole on Jefferson Avenue.

Yeager said all sinkholes that the city is aware of are covered with either steel plates or blocked off and clearly marked in some way to protect motorists and pedestrians.

Yeager said the pipes to the sewers are old. Their materials are not the same as what one might find in a suburban community. "I've heard some are as old as 80 years," Yeager said.

Smith said his house is 120 years old and he's learned from SD1 that his sewer line is about 70 to 80 years old.

So far the only consolation Smith has had is that plumbers found out his lateral pipe is about 3 feet below the surface – and that means it won't take heavy equipment, which is expensive to use, to fix it. He has 30 days to address the issue.

Smith has lived in his house for about eight years but just purchased it in April. He said he doesn't have the money for repairs, nor does he qualify for the city assistance program.